Pacers97 Sixers86
PHILADELPHIA – Larry Brown didn’t have to search long through the rubble to find the right description of his Sixers: “We looked young.”
And so the flipside of this perfectly described the Pacers: Veteran, confident, poised.
In other words, the look of a champion.
As this postseason grows deeper, the Pacers look deeper and scarier and like the team that was picked by many to take the vacated crown they nearly stole from the Bulls a year ago. After last night’s 97-86 victory over the young Sixers, the Pacers now lead this second-round series 3-0, with a sweep possible tomorrow. They are now also 6-0 this postseason, and on a collision course with the Knicks.
“We’re playing with a very high level of confidence,” Reggie Miller said calmly.
Miller scored 29 points on 14 shots. Allen Iverson scored 32 on 33. The stars epitomized their teams.
One played seasoned, the other buck wild.
“Those guys have been in these predicaments before,” Iverson said. “These guys took the Bulls to seven games. They were just better than us.”
Iverson again tried to do it all, the curse of youth. With his teammates watching and standing and hoping, he could make only 13 of his 33 shots, including only 2 of 10 3-pointers.
“Some of the 3-pointers I took were bad shots,” he said. “I just got caught up in the game. I was just trying to do too much. Instead of helping us, it hurt us.”
What hurt most was the giant lapse in the fourth quarter. The Sixers made another run to whittle an 11-point deficit to 77-73 with 9:34 left. Then they missed nine straight shots, while the Pacers played find the open man, hit the open jumper. Finally, with 3:11 left, Miller whooshed an open baseline trey to make it 93-77 and send the sellout crowd bailing the building in droves.
“They were great,” Brown said. “They are great.”
Unlike the Magic, the Pacers kept their wits in what felt like an asylum. And it was that much more crazed than in the first round. Perennial losing often dulls the senses. So when winning finally arises – and unexpectedly, to boot – protocol and etiquette leave city limits in wild rapture. How else do you explain Cheeseheads?
Or 200 some people who shaved their heads a-la Sixers wild man president Pat Croce before the game in the First Union Center parking lot?
Fans were here three hours before tip-off to get “Sixered-up” at Croce’s Block Party, where they grilled and drank and toasted their first hoop postseason since 1991, where four booths were set up to get Croce bald.
A Sixer play by play man did it. So did a 76-year-old woman, a former pediatrician with the most lovely gray locks.
And, yes, foam Cheesesteak-Heads were sold to shield skin from a torrid sun.
This Philly frenzy was brought up to Mark Jackson in the form of how it spooked the Magic, and he scoffed: “It’s like Michael Jackson performing in the Garden. He’s performed overseas, all over Europe, in Japan. It’s no big deal. It doesn’t mean anything to us. We’ve gone to the United Center for a Game 7, to the Garden for a crucial game, what’s a Game 3 in Philly?”
This is what separates old and young, keen and green, Pacers and Sixers.
The Sixers came out supercharged – to a fault. Their shots early were long and strong, crashing the back iron with too much air. They made only 9 of 25. Rookie Larry Hughes, only 20, missed a dunk.
“If we play like we did tonight, then there won’t be a Game 5,” Iverson said somberly.
Meanwhile, the Pacers were talking about finishing the job. They want this series short and sweet and over.
“We want to put them away,” Jackson said. “We don’t want to give them any life. But for us, you know what’s scary? We have yet to play a complete game of basketball. That’s the scary thing about it.”
That’s the look of a champion.